Amid the Falling Snow
by keroberus
Summary: Nostalgic bit of Champloo fluff about Fuu, an axe, and snow. One chapter short fic. Please R&R.


Long time no write!:-) This is one of my favorite anime T.V. series. The first time I saw it on Cartoon Network I had to get the whole series so I could watch it in Japanese! For those who have not seen, the series is really raw, like Cowboy Bebop, and stylistic, which is what I think the director was going for. The music is really awesome. I liked it as much as I liked the Bebop soundtrack.

Anyway, this is a bit of anime fluff inspired by the oncoming Winter time, and a song by Enya. (Yeah, I know, really far removed from the Champloo genre, and still, that's what "cham-puru" means, right? A mishmash.) Apologies in advance, since I have a soft spot for Jin.

--Kero (11-20-06)

* * *

AMID THE FALLING SNOW 

Fuu watched as her breath clouded the window in front of her. Her lips nearly touched the smooth surface as she peered out into the afternoon sky, cloudy and heavy with snow flakes threatening to fall. The restaurant owner had to be kidding. She wanted Fuu to go out in that? Reluctantly, Fuu put on her scarf and overcoat over her kimono uniform. This establishment had to really be something if it required cedar wood to smoke its salmon specialty dish. The only place where cedar grew was at the foot of the mountain, nearly a mile away. Fuu shuddered as she pictured her own frozen corpse lying among a ring of cedars, unthawed until springtime.

"Geez, this really sucks," she muttered, but not too loudly. The last time she complained openly it resulted in an unexpected pay cut in her wages.

"_If you have enough time to complain, then I guess I'm paying you too much_," mimicked Fuu in the old woman's voice as she strapped the snow boots onto her feet. She nervously looked around for the old bat that ran the restaurant, but found herself alone and breathed a sigh of relief.

Fuu did not intend to end up in Hakodate on the southern tip of Hokkaido, but she had fallen asleep on the boat trip that was supposed to take her back to Tokyo. In her mind's eye this odd turn of events really wasn't her fault at all. But actually, she had been scared witless by a black rat in the belly of the ship she stowed away on, fainted and landed herself unwittingly in an open box covered only by a tarp, only to have the sailors dock and load her up on another ship bound for Hokkaido. And just her luck, she was off to Hakodate without having any say in the matter. But the crate she was riding in was stowed close to this second ship's galley, and she snuck in and out of that room for 3 days snatching up food left on the table, very much to the cook's dismay since those had all been prepared for the captain. Luckily, she wasn't noticed at all until the ship made it to port where she was spotted trying to sneak down the gangplank and had to make a mad dash off the pier into the main street of Hakodate with a string of angry sailors and a yelling sea captain in tow demanding she pay for the food she stole and her 'room and board.' Trying not to knock over every street vendor, man, woman and child in her way, she stumbled into the old bat's restaurant Akebeko at the end of the street quite by accident because her sandal strap had snapped in that very moment, and she crashed face first right at the old woman's feet. No, this really wasn't Fuu's fault. This was just some cruel trick of Fate. Having paid off the angry sea captain, the old woman declared that Fuu was now in debt to her, and thus began Fuu's life of servitude…sort of.

The restaurant owner, Kaede Baa-san, was a frail looking thing, slightly taller than four feet high but she had a booming voice and an overwhelming presence. Even the sailors seemed reluctant to stare her down. For whatever reason, Fuu couldn't bring herself to ditch the joint under cover of nightfall and actually stayed there for months, eating, sleeping and playing dice with the other workers as if she had always been there. Perhaps because Kaede reminded her of her own grandmother, now long gone. Perhaps now that the Winter was coming, she felt reluctant to leave again, not having enough money to carry her back to Tokyo. Living off of nuts and berries was fine for Momoko-chan, but Fuu was afraid she'd get lost or starve or both before she made it back home. Sometimes she wished she were a flying squirrel, too.

Momoko crawled out of Fuu's sleeve and perched up on the wooden windowsill. She let out a little squeak of inquiry.

"Yep, that's right. The old woman wants cedar logs, so you and I are gonna get her some," sighed Fuu. Though she wasn't the only waitress there, Kaede Baa-san usually made Fuu do all the unsavory tasks. Still, chopping cedar logs was better than cleaning the outhouse. Momoko perched onto Fuu's shoulder and with the axe and lantern on the cart, they both set out on their little adventure.

After what seemed like a decade of trudging through the wet dirt road in an ever dimming afternoon, the mountain came into view. It was a black mound against a setting sun, like the grave of some giant beast or god reaching upward towards heaven.

"Not long now, Momo-chan," sighed Fuu, panting a little from the walk. Her squirrel friend perched up on the branch of a nearby tree, scouring around for nuts or acorns. Fuu ignored her pet and kep walking. She and Momo would somehow always find one another again and meet up; no matter how far they wander, or how long they are apart. A slight twinge of nostalgia swept over her like wave as she came upon a fork in the road. She stared at it for a while. The fork was split in three, with each path going in separate directions from the same center, with no way of ever meeting up again.

Fuu wondered what her friends were doing now. It had been months since they all recuperated and traveled back from her father's shack to the main shore, and thereafter parted ways with little more than a "See you later," times three.

There was something Kaede Baa-san had said to her one late autumn day that really triggered her to thinking about her friends more, and one friend in particular. When Fuu complained that the restaurant was wasting her youth while she scrubbed the floors, Kaede responded, "You're wasting your own youth," with a throaty snicker. That night, and every other night afterwards, she dreamt of someone she hadn't thought of for a while. Not during the days she wandered aimlessly on the road; not while under the night's starry canopy from the deck of the ship; and not while under the noisy shower of rain from the past months as she slept and worked at Akebeko. Those words that he had said to her in private would resound nightly in her head, echoing something now unattainable.

It started to snow. Fuu looked up at the dimming dusk sky and another flake landed on her shoulder. Then another landed on her eyelash. Then it started to fall like a slow confetti dance, speckling the ground with white.

"Jin," she whispered. There was something about the snow that reminded her of him. Its quiet and silent nature, its stillness and coolness resembled him. Soft yet deadly; calm yet powerful; kind and cruel all at once. Her hands started to get numb.

Fuu put on her mittens and pulled out the axe from her cart. She headed mercilessly towards a group of younger looking trunks. She walked up to the nearest cedar tree and started hacking away. _Thwack_.

She took a deep breath and did it again.

_Thwack._ And then she was suddenly angry.

_Thwack_. _Thwack_. _Thwack_. Why did he have to say that to her?

"_Fuu. After this is all over…whether you find your father or not, what are you going to do? If you don't mind, I... would like to take care of you…"_

_Thwack_.

She could feel her face flushing red, just as it did when he spoke to her. There was something about the tone of his voice, something so vulnerable and powerful that it scared her childish heart. And all she could say was, "Sorry." What was she sorry for? Fuu didn't know at the time, but it seemed like the right thing to say since settling down with anyone was the last thing on her mind. At the time, all she had wanted was revenge. She wanted him to understand but her heart was too young to formulate an explanation, and it was unthinkable to ask a man like him to wait.

Mugen was all fun and games and he would take care of her like an older brother would. That made her comfortable and happy, since she never had any siblings. What Jin had said made her happy and frightened her too. She wanted to say something but could not respond any further. Then he smiled in understanding and softly walked away, taking her silence as its own answer.

_Thwack_!

Why couldn't she tell him? Though she never really paid attention to what the old woman said to her, what Kaede said about her wasting her life suddenly rang true. When he walked away from her for the last time, she watched his back until his form disappeared around the bend in the road. Mugen put a hand on her shoulder and grinned. Then he too parted in another direction. What was the grin all about? She didn't really think about it until now. Was he suggesting that she follow Jin? Preposterous!

But she had wanted to…

_Thwack_! _Thwack_! _Thwack_! _Thwack_…

Fuu look around in part surprise and part horror. Her hands were numb and her arms were achy and tired but when she finally came out of her deep thinking she realized there wasn't a cedar tree near her still standing. There was now a clearing in a perfect circle around her and the cart. Night was quickly coming, so she chopped all the branches off and hurriedly cut the trunks in half so she could tie them together and mount them on the cart. She lit the lanterns and hung them on a sturdy cedar branch in front. The glint of the light against the glass reminded her of his wire-rimmed glasses. She smiled at the thought of her nearsighted samurai, although she suspected that he didn't really need them to see and it just made him look cool.

The snow kept falling in a gentle spray and Fuu noticed that a white blanket was forming on the ground. Had she been out that long? She quickened her pace as she thought about wild wolves that were known to howl on the mountain. She then envisioned her mangled corpse in pieces as wild dogs feasted on her and shuddered.

"Better get back quickly," she said to the air. Her breath blew out in small puffs in front of her face. The imprint on the snow of her footsteps and wheels trailed behind her like a silent companion. Fuu hummed a tuneless song to keep herself company amid the falling snow.

The samurai wrapped his cloak closely around him as the chill crept into his skin. The snow fall had given way to lighter clouds, which in turn gave way to the bright moon that lit up forest against the snowy carpet. There would be no sleeping outdoors tonight. He had been looking around for a road but found none. The snow had covered the ground evenly and he was only wandering between the tufts of grass and bushes where he thought the road might be. But then, a rustling overhead caught his attention.

For a brief moment, he thought he saw a flying squirrel leap out under the moonlight and then disappear into the trees ahead. He walked in that direction and saw a clearing in front of him. When he stepped into it, he realized the clearing had a near perfect circumference of 10 feet in diameter and cedar tree stumps littered across the ground. He puzzled at this random occurrence of deforestation. It didn't seem like the work of a regular woodsman.

Then, he noticed faint footprints and wheel tracks left behind in the snow. Perhaps these would lead him to the nearby town. His stomach was growling. He smiled slightly at his luck and followed the tracks away from the mountain. The samurai pushed his wire-rimmed glasses back up over the bridge of his nose and pressed onward.

* * *

Hope you liked it. Yeah, I thought about continuing this into a bigger story, but this is it for now. Thanks for leaving a review. :-) 

--Kero.

"_The silence of a winter's night  
Brings memories I hold inside;  
Remembering a blue moonlight  
Upon the fallen snow…_"

--Enya, 'Amid the Falling Snow'


End file.
